Compound laser beam welding
AssigneesGeneral Motors Corporation, Suzuki Motor Corporation
InventorsPei-Chung Wang, Shigeki Saitoh, Fujiko Matsuda, Masami Takeshi, Masatake Saito
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Abstract
Hot cracking in laser welds produced in metal workpieces, especially aluminum or magnesium sheet alloys, is avoided by suitably combining the beams of two different lasers, for example a CO2 laser and a YAG laser, into a compound beam that is moved along a weld path in the surface of the workpiece. The power level of at least one of the lasers is cyclically varied so that weld nugget segments of different alternating, hot crack free, configurations are produced in a linear weld.
Claims4
A method for forming a weld in an assembly comprising the edge of a first sheet metal flange folded over the edge of a second sheet metal flange, the edge of said second sheet metal flange being enclosed within the folded-over edge portion of said first flange and unfolded sheet portion of said first flange, said method comprising:
- combining the beam of a first laser material at a first laser power level with the beam of a second and different laser material at a second laser power level into a compound beam;
- directing said compound beam at the surface of the folded-over edge portion of said first flange;
- moving said compound beam along said surface in a linear weld path;
- and
- varying at least one of said first laser power level and said second laser power level during said movement of said compound beam so as to produce variation in the width and depth of weld nugget material produced along said weld path.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.